Halloween Horrors: DRACULA (1931)

DRACULA  (1931)
Directed by Tod Browning
Starring Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Herbert Bunston, David Manners, Frances Dade, Charles K. Gerrard
Not Rated (PG-level thematic material and some mild horror content).
SCAREmeter: 1/10
GOREmeter: 2/10
OVERALL: 3 out of 4 stars

The 1931 film version of DRACULA, directed by Tod Browning, is not the best screen version of Bram Stoker's famous novel, nor is Browning most frightening film, not by a long shot, but it's indelible impact on American pop culture speaks to the power of what might otherwise be an unremarkable film.  Something about DRACULA speaks to the masses in a way that even today, when fewer of the younger generations have seen it, the imagery has not lost its familiarity.
However, as it's maintained its astounding familiarity, making Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi's portrayal of the title character one of the most recognizable icons not only in film but in the whole of western civilization, it's potency has undoubtedly waned, where Dracula is less frightening than campy.  Images of Dracula, directly inspired by Lugosi's performance, appear in all manner of media, even as a breakfast cereal mascot in the form of "Count Chocula" and as a popular Sesame Street character in the form of "Count von Count," as well as other child-friendly interpretations.
The role, for which Lugosi had to lobby hard and negotiate for an atypically low salary for such a role, was both blessing and curse for Lugosi, in one of the most rock-solid cases of typecasting that there ever was.  It became one of the most famous performances of all time and Lugosi was able to rely on it as a source of fame and income (inconsistent and insufficient as it was) for the remainder of his life, but he was also forced to rely on it, as he would never again be afforded a truly successful role.  Contrary to a popular myth, Lugosi did not have to learn his lines for the film phonetically for the film, this story originating from the fact that he did have to do so when he first played the character in a popular stage version 12 years before.  His natural accent has become a famous trademark of the character ever since, perhaps lending more difficulty to Lugosi in finding further work through his inability to alter his unique vocal mannerisms.

The 1931 version of the film, which was originally meant to star movie monster-meister Lon Chaney before his untimely death in 1930, was not the first screen adaptation of the popular horror novel Dracula, written by Irish-born Bram Stoker in 1897, but it was the first official screen adaptation.  In 1922, the German silent film NOSFERATU (German for "vampire") blatantly plagiarized the novel, and while that version today is commonly considered the best adaptation of the story to film by academics (and by myself), the late Stoker's estate sued successfully.  The lawsuit helped gain attention for the cinematic possibilities of the novel, and producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. (whose father produced the first films that became part of the "Universal Monsters" series, starring Lon Chaney, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)), legally acquired the film rights to the novel.  Tod Browning, a veteran of silent film, was tapped to direct (hoping to direct Lon Chaney, with whom he worked before, but was far less enthusiastic after Chaney died and Lugosi was cast), and DRACULA became the first sound film of the Universal Monsters collection.
The film deviates from the novel as Renfield (Universal regular, Dwight Frye, specializing in creeps and henchmen) is the solicitor sent to Transylvania in order to arrange for the eccentric Count Dracula's estate to be moved to London (unbeknownst to Renfeild, where the vampiric Count will have access to new, untold food sources in the bustling metropolis).  There, Renfield is made a vampiric slave to Dracula, compelled to do his bidding, and when Dracula's ship arrives at the London harbor, with all the apparent inhabitants dead, except for Renfield, whose has apparently gone mad, Renfield is committed to Dr. John Seward's (Herbert Bunston) Sanitarium.  In this film version, Seward is the father of Mina (Helen Chandler) (in the novel, Seward was one of multiple suitors to Mina's friend Lucy Westerna (played by Frances Dade)), who is engaged to be married to young skeptic Jonathan Harker (David Manners; a character who arranged Dracula's estate in the novel).  After Lucy falls victim to Dracula, Mina becomes the next target of the Count, and the vampire threat is recognized by Seward's colleague, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan), who sets about convincing the others of the reality of this monster and waging the fight against the monster.
Even though the film is as laden with histrionics as any other film during that era, it does at least have a great rivalry between Dracula and Van Helsing that has a cool and mythic sensibility atypical of films from that time when watched now.  Also, for the attentive viewer, the screenplay is surprisingly rewarding, with fun and puzzling hidden meanings and subtexts, despite what at first seems a static simplicity.
It's not a scary film, and there's plenty that may be more likely to elicit laughs from today's audiences (especially the bat puppets), but there's undeniably something that resonates with people that has allowed the film, its imagery and many of its lines to pervade modern culture.  The widow's peak, the accent and the cape (the like of which Lugosi was buried in at his funeral) are all classic trademarks of what is now the most popular monster of all time, and despite Dracula being the most frequently adapted movie monster of all time, and possibly the most frequently adapted film character of all time, Lugosi's version remains the best known by far.  Lines like "I am Dracula...I bid you welcome," "For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, " "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make," and, of course, "I never drink...wine," stand amongst the most famous lines in the history of film.  Browning would follow-up DRACULA with FREAKS (1932), a far more frightening and disturbing film, but the former would forever be his most famous film, and Lugosi would die broke, still a victim of the role of a lifetime.